Our History

Remap was formed in 1964 by Pat Johnson an ICI employee. Pat’s sister had polio which presented her with physical problems in managing day to day life.

Pat’s sister was confined to a wheelchair but had upper body movement.

As a widow she relied on her children and neighbours for help with day to day living. She even needed help getting her wheelchair down the steps to go to the shops. Having acquired some scrap timber, Pat built a wooden ramp to his sister’s front door and also installed an electric hoist, with a runway above the ceiling in the hall and bathroom of her bungalow.

His sister was overjoyed with the ramp and hoist as they immediately gave her a level of independence she had never enjoyed before. Pat was so impressed with the huge changes this relatively simple solution made to his sister’s life that he resolved to bring similar changes to other people's lives.

The changes he made to his sister’s house led to the concept of forming Remap and soon other ICI engineers became involved and helped to develop the idea further.

Remap grew steadily to where it is today, covering the whole of the UK, helping over 3,500 people every year to become more independent.

A lot has changed over the last 50 years or so, but our creativity and inventiveness remain at the core of what we do.

Timeline

1964 (Pat) Johnson sets up a group of volunteers engineers mainly from ICI Teeside. Called Basic Movement Advisory Panels (BMAP)